The California Tavern

The original building was destroyed by the sea in the 1920's, the present building is an enlarged Fisherman's cottage.

THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA

LANDLORDS 1854 - 2009

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The History of Yarmouth Holidays (with thanks to The Yarmouth Official Tourism Website - see links page)

In 1844 the railway arrived in Great Yarmouth. It transformed the resort. By 1846, 80,000 people were visiting Great Yarmouth by rail each summer. Before the coming of the railway Yarmouth was a haven for a small number of wealthy visitors. They enjoyed leisurely holidays which revolved around socialising with one another. The railways changed all this. For the first time the town was open to mass tourism. In the summer season the town thronged with huge numbers of visitors from factory towns in the Midlands and the North. The Great Yarmouth seafront was transformed as hotels, piers and entertainment venues sprang up along the promenade.

A new type of holiday accommodation started to emerge during the late Victorian era - the holiday camp. The first holiday camp in the UK was opened in 1906 at Caister-on-Sea. By today's standards the camp was very basic with holidaymakers staying in tents and assisting with camp chores. Another very popular holiday camp opened in 1924, Potters, which boasted of facilities such as brick chalets, running water and electric lights! However, the Second World War brought about dramatic changes with many of the holiday camps being used as bases by the military.

The introduction of annual paid leave after WWII allowed many working-class people to go on holiday for the first time. Holiday camps and caravan parks provided self-catering accommodation at a reasonable price. The camps quickly became self-contained with all the facilities and entertainments that guests needed provided at the holiday camp. 

From the 1950s, following the end of WWII, holiday camps really had their golden era. People hadn't been on holiday for many years and some children had never seen the sea. Life had been incredibly hard and the public were in need of fun and entertainment. The holiday camp could provide all this and more. With swimming pools on site, entertainment  in the evenings, competitions including ‘Glamorous Granny' and ‘Knobbly Knees' plus plentiful food the camps offered all the right ingredients for an excellent and affordable family holiday. By 1977 holiday camps provided more than two-thirds of the holiday accommodation in Great Yarmouth, but by the end of the 70's the seaside holiday boom began to slow down. The promise of guaranteed sunshine abroad meant many people abandoned the British coastline in favour of new destinations. By the late 1980's many seaside towns around the country had entered a period of decline.

In recent years, Great Yarmouth has seen huge regeneration projects to breathe new life back into a town that never stopped being a popular destination but which needed modernisation and refurbishment, and with perfect timing, the British seaside holiday has recently come back into vogue.